Realizations After "Ondoy" (Typhoon Ketsana)

It's quite hard to focus on the daily grind. Everything seems trivial thinking that the metropolis is still in shambles but this too shall pass. I have my own pressing concerns but it seems my world stopped. What are my concerns compared to the tragedy that befell my kababayans (fellow Filipinos)? Kaya ko 'to! Kaya natin 'to, mga Pinoy! (I can do it! We can rise above this, fellow Filipinos!)

Contributing in our own little way to help relieves anxieties. It should, right? But still whatever help we did feels so little and are not enough when we see on television what happened to our brothers and sisters just an hour or two hours drive away from our residence. Even the first floor of my father-in-law's house in Bulacan was submerged in water. They are safe now. My husband and my sister-in-law helped clean the house yesterday.

In the midst of all these, realization sets in that we are not in any way prepared. We do not even have contingencies at home. Nobody is taking note. We do not want another disaster like Ondoy, no. But we do not want to be caught unaware. We would like to take some measures which could come in handy, which could help us, if not us, the people in our community or elsewhere, or our relatives who might be needing them. (By 'we' and 'our' I keep on mentioning in the above paragraphs, I am referring to me and my family.)

1. Important documents are in a storage place easily accessible for us. This has always been the case but I became more conscious about it now.

2. Extra batteries for emergency lamps and flashlights. These we do not have so they are added in our grocery list.

3. Food, we do the groceries weekly but we need to buy more food that are ready to eat - bread, crackers, cup noodles (oh yes, we can eat the raw noodles).

4. We always have stock of 2 five gallons of distilled water good for four days but maybe I will add 2 more.

5. Put some clothes and towels for each of us inside a bag kept in a closet in an area easy to grab.

6. Charge, charge, charge cell phones. Have extra batteries. Take note where we keep our candles and matches. I have forgotten where until the brownout last Saturday.

7. Do I put in a plastic bag every night the school things of my daughter? Just a thought. Maybe only if it's raining too hard.

8. Secure laptop and pictures (put the pictures in one box instead of all of them on top of our cabinets). These aren't priorities but it won't hurt if they are safe when emergency calls for us to evacuate.

9. First aid kit or health kit including sanitary napkins. Oh yes, I just have to say that lest we are forgetting.

10. Reduce, reuse, recycle. I don't know any project in our community about trash segregation. I can start at home.

New media rocks. I'm trying my best going about my usual business but my social networking accounts are open for real time updates. It's like looking after one another reposting in Facebook, retweeting relevant messages about relief and rescue operations for the victims of "Ondoy". I sincerely hope those posts helped a soul or two.

The importance of communication cannot be discounted in normal situations much more during calamities. This made me realize that it has been 15 years since our PLDT landline goes dead whenever there are power outages. I remember I emailed about this concern four or five years ago and the reply I got was that the batteries on their main box(?) will be replaced. I did not follow up but this morning we did. Yes, we followed up after 4 or 5 years. It seems the batteries were not replaced as we continue to have dead phone lines during brownouts. "Ondoy" has to happen to make us remember this concern.

We emailed the customer care of PLDT this morning about this fifteen year old issue. We hope to have a working phone line even during brownouts. We cannot contact 173 or 171 so the next option was to email. A generic answer won't do. I hope they act on the matter quickly.

My Bayantel DSL (dis)connection issue seemed trivial with the latest problem the nation is now facing but I just have to say we are still having intermittent connection, running on its third week now. I will refrain from discussing it here further since we already emailed their customer support again as we cannot get through their landline.

For now, let me focus on the more important things I need to do. Help in whatever way we can. Clothes for donation are sorted. Will do groceries later. Attend church activity tonight. Count our blessings and pray for a quick recovery and for a safer, more prepared Philippines. God bless this country!

A Deluge Called "Ondoy" (Typhoon Ketsana)

I woke up at half past eight thirty in the morning yesterday. It was cloudy, the pavement was damp looking outside our house. It seemed it had just rained. I thought it was a good thing. We all want some cool air.

It rained hard after a while. I thought nothing about it. My husband went out and told me when he came back the street was ankle deep with flood water. Again, I thought nothing of it but was surprised our street was flooded. We have not experienced any real flood no matter how strong the rains were. There were drainage problems years ago which caused our street to have ankle deep flood water but it stopped as soon as the drainage issues were addressed.

My husband went out for the second time and came back telling me the water was higher than ankle already and the street a little farther was waist-deep. I couldn't believe it. How could it be waist deep? That area was very near ours. I went out to check myself. Oh yes, there was flood water on our street. Not really high but two or three houses' driveways were already with water.

I was praying please spare our house. I don't want to be lifting sofas and other appliances. I don't want to be removing water from the house. That's a mess. We were on guard on the rise of the water level.

It was a pretty normal Saturday morning in spite of being on guard on the water level. I talked to my sister over the phone, talked to my sister in law and my brother over YM, and watched my niece through the webcam. I heard of flood in other areas but it did not alarm me. My brother who was tuned in to ANC said "parang ilog na pala d'yan" ("seems like a river out there"). They live in the U.S. I thought nothing of it. I thought it was the usual flood that will go away in a matter of minutes, at least less than an hour.

I was logged on to Twitter and Facebook as well as Plurk and updates from friends, celebrities and news networks kept coming in. Oh no! The flood waters in Pasig, Cainta, Marikina and Fairview were rising quickly and steadily. My cousins were stuck along the road because of the grid lock and flood. My father in law's first floor was already under water. Streets in almost all areas of the metro were submerged in water. I was alarmed!

I love the rain, it always soothes me but for the first time in my life I prayed for the rain to stop. People were getting stranded everywhere. Electricity in some parts were cut off for safety reasons. We experienced two brown outs and for the first time too this did not annoy me.

My daughter said she was so bored. I just have to make her realize we should be thankful we are safe in our house. A lot of people were wet, hungry and scared on top of their roofs.

I texted and tried to call my relatives and friends to check how they were doing. I was relieved to read every reply saying they were okay. One has experienced waist-deep flood but generally fine and water subsided easily.

I mentally accounted what we should be bringing in case we needed to get out of the house. I told myself I won't be able to sleep if it will still rain during the night. I wanted to be updated what is happening outside especially the flooded areas. I was thankful the rain stopped, drizzling maybe but it was really quiet last night. No rain. I was able to go to sleep. On my mind and in our prayers was the safety of all the people still stranded outside.

I woke up dreading to watch and hear the morning after "Ondoy". Watching the news yesterday was heartbreaking. Watching and reading about the aftermath was devastating. The news, the pictures were enough to traumatize me. As of this posting, 11:16 PM, there are still people yet to be rescued in some villages. I pray for their safety.

Pangs of guilt, worry and fear are eating me up to the point of almost getting a headache with all these emotions going inside me. I have never felt this way before.

I am worried because anytime this can happen again.

I am scared because we are not prepared for any calamity. Nobody is.

I am guilty because I am sitting in front of my computer in the comforts of our house instead of out there helping in whatever way I can. I am relaying informative updates as a way of doing my part. As what has been said, if you really cannot help outside and might just add to the chaos that is going on, just stay put. Pray and stay calm.

We did contribute through our church this morning. A lot of our churchmates in Rizal were affected by the flood. It was nothing big but I hope it will help even a small number of people. We will sort out clothes tomorrow to drop off to donation centers. My husband will go to his father's place to help clean the house.

I was wrong to think that this flood only concerns my aversion to a messy house caused by muddy water. Metro Manila and nearby provinces were inundated. It was horrible. Watching the devastation was enough to traumatize me. I could only pray for strength of those directly affected by the flood.

I heard from updates that another storm is expected on Wednesday. Preparing for contingencies won't hurt. It's necessary coming from what just happened, massive flash flood surprised us all. I hate to say this but a tragedy like "Ondoy" need to happen as a wake up call for all of us. Noah built the arc when it was not raining. Let us bear that in mind.

In all these I thank God for taking care of us as well as my relatives and friends. I pray to God to ease the pain and fear of all the people affected by the storm and the flood. I pray for a quick recovery for the people, for the country. I pray for better crisis management by the government and by the people.

Prayers work wonders. I am a believer. That eased my troubled mind. Now we work hard as one to prevent another crisis. Let there be light.

*****
I'm glad Julie was fine after the night their house was surrounded by flood water. I pray Feng is doing okay. The first floor of their house in Pasig was submerged in water when Chats forwarded her text on Saturday night. We have not contacted her since then.

These Are A Few of Her Favorite Things

Do you remember Maria's song from The Sound of Music, My Favorite Things? If I will change the lyrics and replace them with my daughter's favorites, we might need a twenty track CD, with extended versions, remix and bonus tracks. My daughter has a lot of favorite things, persons and activities that keeps her occupied and wide eyed. Mamarazzi that I am, I keep snapshots of all of them. I would love to share some. Please indulge me.

She loves books which I have shared countless times in this blog. I have featured her showing a collage devouring her books. She can't wait most of the time that she reads her book as soon as we buy them even if we are still in a restaurant waiting for our food.


Books
She loves chicken fingers and fries that these are already staple when we eat out. I'm close to begging her to skip it and order something else. The second choice would be pasta in pesto sauce.


Chicken fingers and fries
This often happens with children. They have a favorite among the things they own that they won't let go. My daughter has an obsession with her purple and yellow hoodie. This is already like a part of her uniform going to school. Good thing it has a good fabric and color which does not fade due to laundry-abuse. She uses this like three times a week. I have to tell her to give attention to her other sweatshirts and hoodies. Also, she reverted to her favorite color, purple. From purple to pink and back to purple because according to her, pink is too girly girl.


This jacket and the color purple
She plays volleyball and badminton but swimming is still her favorite sport. She does not want to get out from the pool once there. She loves the water that even her shower time takes more than thirty minutes I have to knock on the door and tell her to finish bathing.


Swimming
Like most children these days, she loves using the computer and visit her favorite sites - Meez, Disney, Nickelodeon, YouTube and uses YM to chat with her friends. Reality is she can only use the computer on weekends on a limited time. On rare occasions I allow her to use it on weekdays especially after a trimester test, a sort of a reward to her.


Computer
My daughter is a craft buff. Sometimes she spends a few hours just creating her scrapbooks and collages. Here she assembled the 3D poster of one of her favorite celebrities, Miley Cyrus. Beside her are the magazines sent by my sister which mostly contain the tweens' favorites, Twilight, The Jonas Brother, Selena Gomez among other Disney stars.


Crafting and Celebrities
One of the best times she had last summer was spending time with her favorite cousins. They call this their "hang-out". She loves her Ate Jill and her Ate Tin.


With Jill and Tin
She lives in the U.S. but my daughter and I love Frankie, my niece and her only first cousin (my brother's daughter). Yes, we're a small family. And here's our favorite picture of her sitting on what used to be her favorite rocking horse which I sent her through Amazon.


Frankie

***Read more sharing at Mommy Journey.

Bayantel DSL Recurring Disconnection Issue

I have been experiencing time out and internet disconnection for maybe seven days straight now. I don't really know what is wrong and so do Bayantel DSL technicians.

The intermittent connection is a part of my Bayantel DSL internet since they became my ISP but it was tolerable. I've been very patient. But it's been getting worse the past weeks. I call several times a day and almost everyday Bayantel technicians visit our house to check why we are having disconnection problems. My husband already removed the router to isolate any problem. It's still intermittent.

I appreciate the three Bayantel technicians which visited the house on Sept. 16. Along with their supervisor on the phone, they tried their best to locate the source of the problem and fix it.

They have checked all possible areas where the source of the disconnection was coming from. They have changed the cable inside our house on Sept. 15 because it was bleeding. They have checked the cable in the area where our connection is coming from which they call OPAC. They have changed the cable from the post to our house on Sept 16. We all thought the problem might be coming there since according to one technician, there was a soft part which seemed to have a broken wire.

I was not supposed to agree when they asked me if they can close the job order because for the past days our experience was after the technician leaves, the modem blinks again and the terrible (dis)connection occurs again. But since the technicians were very nice and the problem seemed to have been addressed, I said they can close it.

The connection went well. I was thinking at last, we'll have a disconnection-free internet now. But the following day, the modem blinked again and so I have to call their customer support for the nth time.

Another issue I want to raise to Bayantel DSL is their posting of customer complaints. This happened thrice to me already. The exact time I called was not the time they posted my complaint.

I called on Sept. 17, Thursday, at 9AM but the customer agent told me the complaint was posted at past 12 noon. I asked why. She said maybe they waited for one report to be closed. What?

There were other two similar incidents. One was I called at around 10AM but report was posted an hour after. The second one was worse. I called in the morning but it was posted around 3PM.

As I type this I just reset my modem and it signaled I am connected but when I check the ping, it said "request timed out" again. That was less than a minute.

Bayantel DSL technicians went at the house again yesterday but what else can they do but monitor the connection since they have already exhausted all means to check what could be the problem. They did not bring any modem with them even if I requested through their customer support so they have to leave and go back two hours after which really inconvenienced me because I have a six o'clock appointment.

Anyway, they went back, changed the modem to the one they brought but we still have the same problem. It's still blinking and gets disconnected. The modem even lost its power so we decided to just retain the old modem. Of course I can't let them close the report so they put "for monitoring" in their remark.

I called customer support twice today, Sept. 19, first at 10am and the second time at past 12 noon. Just please address my disconnection problem once and for all. The technicians were saying it could be the distribution port structure which is causing the problem since it's very old. But they don't have the authority to touch it. It's with the Bayantel linemen already.

I don't have the energy anymore to get angry to Bayantel DSL. Either I endure this kind of poor connection service or leave Bayantel after more than two years. I have been asking around which is a better choice. The consensus was to just get PLDT DSL because they have better connection. A neighbor has a PLDT DSL and he said for the past five or six months, they only had one issue but it was resolved immediately. Same feedback with a colleague. They have been using PLDT since January this year and there was only one incident about a disconnection issue and was fixed in no time.

I hope Internet Service Providers will not only focus in generating sales but also on how to cope with the maintenance of their hardware. I do not blame the technicians since they have shown responsibility in addressing the problem. I just don't want to comment on their competence but obviously, this disconnection problem has not been addressed. I do not shoot the messenger as well as most customer agents are very accommodating.

I'm a customer very easy to please you see but my patience is running very low with the terrible connection Bayntel DSL is giving me. Maybe Bayantel's facilities need thorough rehabilitation.

I hope the National Telecommunications Commission and the Department of Trade and Industry also conduct regular audit on the kind of service ISPs provide. Just a thought, who knows, a senate inquiry might do the trick.

All I can do now is wait again for their technician and pray that the problem will be resolved today and I won't get disconnected anymore.

I Saw the Sign

We extended our stay in Palawan, coming from a three-day stay at Dos Palmas, for a day and a half more because we wanted to visit the famous St. Paul Underground River, now known as Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. Two hours to three hours of bone-jarring road trip from Puerto Princesa City going to Sabang Beach and then a boat ride going to the undergrond river for about an hour if I remember it right. It was all worth it.

(Nag-extend kami ng stay sa Palawan ng isa at kalahati pang araw para makabisita kami sa St. Paul Underground River. Dalawang hanggang tatlong oras na napakatagtag na lakbayin at mula Puerto Princesa hanggang Sabang Beach at isang oras na boat ride papuntang underground river.)



One of the cave's opening
I was really excited upon seeing the sign board welcoming us to this nature's wonder. It took us 25 minutes to go around the cave. Our tour guide has lots of stories to tell about the shapes of the stalactites and stalagmites. It was fun! Whatever fears I had were gone even if it was really cold, dark and for sure the water was very deep.

(Na-excite talaga ako ng makita ko na ang karatulang nagsasaad na andito na kami sa aming adventure. Dalawamput limang minuto para ikutin ang loob ng kweba at maraming kwento si manong tungkol sa iba't-ibang hugis ng bato. Nakakaaliw kaya mawawala ang kaba mo kahit na malamig at madilim sa loob at siguradong malalim ang tubig.)

***Read more signs at Litratong Pinoy.

The Pillars of the Earth

This book gathered dust on my book shelf for maybe four or five years. It was given by one of my mentors in my former company. Colleagues almost always give me books since they know I read a lot. Some books I read right away but some I eventually forget as books pile up.

A few months ago I made an inventory of my books and thought of either giving away some or read them before I purchase other books again. I decided to read them all.

I mentioned to a friend some titles in my possession I have yet to read. She gasped when she heard about The Pillars of the Earth. She nudged me to read it right away. Guaranteed I won't be able to put it down. Still I put off reading because I bought two new books by Eckart Tolle - The Power of Now and A New Earth.

Until finally I was done with the two books, I decided to read first Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth among the books lined up.

How on earth did I let this great book be left out on my shelf? It feels like a sacrilege. Yes, it's true, every turn of the page made my heart skip - rich in detail, very engaging.

SETTING. It felt like I was living in the 12th century England, the century I am most fascinated about. I marvel at how detailed Ken Follet described the era and the life of the people at the time. I can see, smell, feel each house, each castle, church and market place.

The architecture was so vivid I get to picture on my mind how the construction was going on (with a little help from Google since some terms are alien to me).

I was also interested with the food the characters partake. It put a big grin on my face learning about what kind of food people eat during Medieval times. I try to imagine how they were - ale, wine, wheat bread, boiled bacon with small onion, bowl of beef broth. turnips, jug of golden beer, etcetera. Bread was the staple food.

CHARACTERS. I love the build up of each character. No character was wasted even if they just appeared in a couple of pages. All roles are significant in the story that is unfolding. Everyone was given his perfect time to shine (and their time to fall). Strength of character was deeply ingrained with the major characters but they are with flaws too that you get to identify with them at certain points.

I love how the author created the names. You will know the cunning Waleran Bigod, the caring monk Johnny Eightpence, cellarer Cuthbert Whitehead, the jongleur Jack Shareburg.

This book has Father Philip, Prior of Kingsbridge, as the great mediator. Of all the men in religious clothing, he was the most righteous. Probably 90% were depicted as greedy for money and power and unjust. On my mind I was saying it's a good thing there never was an issue with Ken Follet and the Catholic church when this book was released.

The women were either powerful like Aliena and Ellen, devious like Regan Hamleigh and powerless like Elizabeth and some other minor characters. The men had their virtues like Father Philip as mentioned above, Tom Builder, Jack, Francis, among others. But in almost all the critical situations, it was always the woman who made the resolutions successful.

PLOT. Intriguing. It is amazing how the events, the situations are neatly interwoven spanning over 40 years captured vividly in almost a thousand pages. The story and the characters are fictional (but most probably inspired by some real characters or at least impressions on them) with actual historical events as its backdrop.

It's message in a nutshell is evil will never triumph over good intentions. It's a story of love's enduring power over vengeance and greed. Cheesy the way I put it but it's a very engaging read.

This is the kind of book that I was raring to know what happens next but at the last leg I felt a pang of sadness because I don't want it to end. It felt like the book, the characters have lives of their own.

The Pillars of the Earth gave me more than a glimpse of the way of living in the 12th century. It was as if I was there, part of their story. I get so absorbed reading the book that it was like living at Kingsbridge for real and I personally know Jack, Aliena, the prior of Kingsbridge, Father Philip, and the rest of the characters.

Surprisingly when I read about some comments about the book, they also felt sad having finished reading it. I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

What book do I read now? I tried picking up some books but can't bring myself to read them yet because I am still feeling the high of The Pillars of the Earth. It's like anything at this point is incomparable with the excitement I feel whenever I read each page of Pillars.

You see I love the books of Haruki Murakami and Paulo Coelho. I cherish their books and reading them bring my mind and emotions to higher levels of imagination and feeling. But with The Pillars of the Earth, I just don't want it to end. I want to transport myself, go back in time and see everything that is hapening at Kingsbridge. I want to live in Medieval England.

I was more than glad to know that the television series of The Pillars of the Earth is currently in production to be released on 2010! Watching the clips made me more excited as they seem what I had imagined them to be. I am just so happy. I hope they will be true to what the book gave its readers. I hope the series will be grand, majestic and breathtaking.

Scouting Investiture

I became a member of the Girl Scout movement when I was in grade school. The drills and the activities were tiring alright but joining earned me a lot of friends from different grade levels. Also, it helped me experience independence from my parents whenever we have our camping. I remember though I was only allowed to join twice in campings held at the school grounds.

I was excited for my daughter when she decided to be a Girl Scout last year. She was never a Star Scout since she prefers to be active in other extra curricular activities since her earlier days in grade school. She is a member of their Music, Arts and swimming clubs.


This photo was taken during their investiture last October 2008. I attended the ceremony as I always do when she has participation in school programs. A photo opportunity for us after the part where the neckerchief, green cap and scouting pin were handed over by the parents (or godmother) to their scouts.

Today's Mommy Moments talk about hats, my daughter do love wearing one. She has a collection actually. I shared a few pictures many posts ago for Photo Hunt the different hats of my daughter.

***Read more sharing at Mommy Journey.

Delaying Gratification

It's my daughter's first trimester examination this week. The long weekend was spent mostly for reviewing her subjects. Reviewing sometimes prove to be a challenge. Why? Because a day of exam consists of four to five subjects. I need to guide her to manage her time so she can study all the subjects especially the major ones - Math, Science and HEKASI (Geography, History, Civics).

These subjects require a lot of reading and yes, memorization. Add to that the minor subject, but information laden, Computer. The terms, the functions the students have to remember are just so many. I hope they will just have an actual exam for Computer and not theoretical.

There has to be a gap between examination days. It should not be held in consecutive days to give the students more time to study and go over all the lessons. Or at least give the students an outline of the scope of the test. In the meantime that these proposals are on its way to the school directress' email, my daughter hast to study per their schedule.

At least two teachers review them before the long tests. That is highly appreciated. The students need all the help they can get considering the load of subjects and lessons in a given trimester. I notice that quizzes are not as frequent as they were during the last school year. Quizzes help students be refreshed with current and previous lessons.

I reminded my daughter a few days ago that she needs to start reviewing early so she will not cram on the next days. We made a pact that she will study at least three days before the test, at least for the subjects which require long reading. The drawback here is she might forget some lessons. Well, reviewing is recalling what they have learned. I am confident there is a deep understanding of the lessons so forgetting them is unlikely.

You see my daughter can only use the computer for internet browsing and games during weekends (on a limited time) with the exception of weekends before the exam week. There were a lot of shows on Disney and Nickelodeon that she wanted to watch (though they have watched most in YouTube) during the weekend that passed but she has to study for the most parts of the day.

Daughter: Why do we need to take examssss???
Me: Just one of the ways to check how much you learned from your lessons.
Daughter: Why can't quizzes be enough? It's the same thing.
Me: Some things needs to get done, guidelines to follow which include your tests in schools. After this, you can rest to your heart's content.

I didn't feel my answer was good enough but in these times of what seems like "dread and agony", I perk up her mood. I show patience and understanding to what she is feeling. I try my best to motivate her and inculcate the value of delaying gratification. Gladly she understands. She just have to let it out. I let her. After her short monologue, she picks up her books and starts studying and I can see no resentment on what she is doing.

If I could think of better ways in reviewing lessons other than scheduling it ahead and taking fifteen to 30 minute breaks, then I'd gladly share it with her.

It's better to finish the hard work and reap the fruits of your labor after. Have fun after the toil. It should never be fun first before hard work. Oh yes, maybe a few times the reverse happens but I would definitely want her to have a clear understanding that a long-term or more substantial reward is more fulfilling than short-term rewards. A little sacrifice now, gain and win later.

I pray to God she carries this value with all her heart as she grows older. Work hard first and enjoy the rewards later, maybe even sooner, God willing.

Father-figure - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Father-figure - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

The death of Executive Minister Eraño “Ka Erdy” Manalo of the Iglesia ni Cristo, who passed away last Monday at the age of 84, has plunged the church his father founded in 1914 into deep grief. For many members, the loss was most personal. The reaction of a volunteer worker at a church-affiliated TV network reflected the distress of many: “Father is gone. Father is gone,” the volunteer said in Filipino, weeping.
To the millions of Iglesia members, Ka Erdy was, simply, “Tatay,” the father-figure of a growing but close-knit family. To other Filipinos, especially Roman Catholics who only had a hazy notion of the beliefs of the homegrown church he led, he was a mostly mysterious figure—not because his life was shrouded in secrecy, but because he was a truly simple man, and averse to publicity. It is this quality that gave him an aura of mystery; he was unlike other religious leaders who cut a high profile or whip up congregations into a frenzy.

The Iglesia ni Cristo has been blessed, to use a rather worldly criterion, with the longevity of its leaders. Founder Felix Manalo served as executive minister for almost half a century, and his son and successor served for over 46 years. This blessing has allowed a church famous for its discipline to hold fast to its core beliefs even in a changing world; analogously, the distinctive architecture of INC temples has enabled the church to retain a very clear image of itself even through the years.

But the INC under Ka Erdy was also quick to adapt to changing circumstances. In 1968, the church began expanding to other countries. Today, it is present in 90 countries. The INC is also very media-savvy, with its central offices housing TV networks that help broadcast the news and spread the faith.

By all accounts, Ka Erdy was a true man of God, personally modest, devoted to his family and above all dedicated to the ministry. The deep grief INC members feel at his passing comes, not only from their belief that he was God’s chosen messenger, but from their keen recollection of his kindly nature.

But any discussion of the role Ka Erdy and his fast-growing church played and continues to play in Philippine society is not complete without a mention of the political influence the Iglesia ni Cristo wields—a direct consequence of its church discipline.

While it is not true that every single member of the church votes according to the discernment of the church leaders, surveys have confirmed that by far it is the most cohesive religious organization, and votes mostly as a bloc.

A telling tribute from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s eldest son, Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, made when he visited the religious leader’s wake, was not lip service but the candid truth. Ms Arroyo, the congressman said, would not have become president if it weren’t for Manalo.

This simple assertion is true for most presidents since the reelection of Ferdinand Marcos in 1969. And in point of fact, Ka Erdy was already executive minister then. The estimate then was that the INC’s 300,000 votes went solidly for Marcos in a contentious election. This support became one of the main reasons Marcos became the first president since Manuel L. Quezon back in Commonwealth days to be reelected.

So Mikey Arroyo had reason to make the dutiful trek to the Iglesia’s Central Temple, as did many other politicians. (Speaker Prospero Nograles bused in well over 100 House members to the wake—surely a crystalline sign of the church’s political clout.)

It should be noted, however, that when President Arroyo made her first attempt to fast-track Charter change in 2006 through a Senate-less constituent assembly in December 2006, the Iglesia ni Cristo was among the religious organizations that vigorously protested the self-serving maneuver’s blatant immorality. Not even the President’s closeness or deference to Ka Erdy Manalo could disguise the rank immorality of the unconstitutional maneuver.

Mikey Arroyo may thus choose to remember the support the Iglesia ni Cristo threw his mother’s way in 2004, but he would do well to also remember a warning from the Bible: What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Ka Erdy’s long and full life is a lesson in providence.

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Ballroom Dance

Part of the activities in my daughter's school is their annual field demonstration held during the first quarter of the year. I look forward to this event as excitedly as my daughter does. I love watching the different presentations of the students especially my daughter's class.

It involves hours of practice each week and the rehearsals go almost on a daily basis as the activity gets nearer. This year my daughter's grade level did the ballroom dance.

My daughter and I shopped for her dress as they were required to don a dress in bright colors, preferably in pink or red shade. It was not the usual Sunday dress. I opted to buy a simple dress which is appropriate for her age but still matches the requirement.


Children are children. They played while waiting for the assembly proper even in their formal wears.


***Read more sharing at Mommy Journey.

A Walk in the Park Circa 1980s

I thought it will be great to share a scanned picture of me and my high school friends walking along the road of one of the most visited places during the 80s, Nayong Pilipino. This was part of our field trip during our senior year.

(Excited akong i-share ang isang litrato ko kasama kasama ang aking mga classmates noong high school. Kuha ito sa aming field trip noong kami ay nsa senior year na. Ito ay isa sa mga madalas bisitahin noong 80s, ang Nayong Pilipino.)

It's been so long! I stumbled on this picture while choosing what to share for this week's Lakad (walk, literally) theme of Litratong Pinoy.

(Ang tagal na nito! Nabuklat ko ang isang folder ko ng mga lumang litrato habang naghahanap ng mailalahok sa tema ngayong linggo sa Litratong Pinoy.)


Look at our pants, they are what the kids are wearing now - skinny jeans. Fashion just goes back with some little twists. Two of them in picture live abroad while the two of us in the middle are in the Philippines. One of us will eventually migrate to the US.

(Tingnan n'yo ang aming mga pantalon! Ganyan din ang mga suot ng kabataan ngayon - skinny jeans. Ang fashion ay paikot-ikot lamang. Dalawa sa kasama ko sa litrato ay naninirahan na sa abroad. Kaming dalawang nasa gitna ay narito sa Pilipinas ngunit isa sa amin ay magma-migrate din eventually.)

Time flies. A few months ago we held our silver jubilee and our batch hosted it. It's great that some of us are communicating again. Thanks to our Yahoo Group and Facebook. In fact a number of us we'll meet tomorrow night for a little get-together for our August and September birthday celebrants.

(Ang bilis ng panahon. Ilang buwan lamang ay nagdaos kami ng silver jubilee. Masaya ako at patuloy muli ang aming komunikasyon. Salamat sa Yahoo Group at sa Facebook. Bukas ay magkikita-kita kami para i-celebrate ang mga birthdays sa buwan ng Augusto at Setyembre.

Brother Erano Manalo

Like a beacon of light in the darkness of night. Rest in peace.